Nueces County Jail Dealing with Overcrowding

Over the weekend there were 173 people arrested and locked up in the Nueces County Jail. And the jail could reach it's maximum capacity by weeks end. It's what the sheriff is calling a critical situation.

There's a two part reason behind this sudden increase in jail population. Statistically crime goes up during the summer, but secondly, and perhaps the most relevant, there's a new police chief in town with a mandate to crack down on crime.

"Right now we're seeing the Corpus Christi Police Department, bringing a lot of Class B offenders into the facility," said Nueces County Sheriff Jim Kaelin.

"I'm going to police this community. And so you know we have to just be prepared to do what we need to do," said Corpus Christ Police Chief Floyd Simpson.

The city and county top law enforcement officers are talking about problems on both ends of their jobs.

Police Chief Simpson says he's cracking down on crime and criminals will be arrested and taken to jail.

The Nueces County Sheriff Kaelin says, that's all fine and good, but his jail is quickly running out of space. And there's no sign of either issue getting any better any time soon.

"This is a critical period, June, July and August, because this is the vacation months for the courts. They go on vacation and when they're on vacation, you're not moving cases," said Sheriff Kaelin.

"Well I think he's got a process he's got to do and if we have to put people in jail then that's what we have to do," said Chief Simpson.

Now one thing Sheriff Kaelin pointed out is that the 49 person jail pod that recently opened up is providing some relief, but it's only a band-aid.

Since there hasn't been any major additions to the Nueces County Jail lock up in more than 20 years, the Sheriff says it's not going to get any better.

In the meantime, County Commissioners say there are no plans to expand the jail.